Damage to the endometrium, fallopian tubes, and adjacent structures elicited upon ascension of some sexually transmitted diseases, especially Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae, from the lower to upper genital tract is termed pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). This disease remains a significant threat to the reproductive health of women as delays in antimicrobial treatment increase the incidence of chronic pelvic pain, ectopic pregnancy, and tubal infertility. Many important aspects of this common disorder of women, unfortunately, remain poorly understood.

This special issue will take particular interest in manuscripts related to PID including epidemiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment and represent an opportunity for interested researchers to present pertinent original data or summarize more recent concepts, developments, and advances in the field. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Historical perspective
• Epidemiology and case definition
• Risk factors for disease progression
• Review of chlamydial screening programs
• PID incidence among untreated women with C. trachomatis infection
• Pathogenesis of disease (including relevance of emerging PID pathogens)
• Diagnostic modalities (including use of disease biomarkers)
• Noninvasive imaging
• Mathematical modeling of PID epidemiology
• Evaluation of the cost effectiveness of screening and treatment programs
• Review of treatment trials

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/idog/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/ according to the following timetable: